Lotus
by ObsidianJade
Summary: "The dead are supposed to journey to Paradise - but my only paradise is by his side." Post series Puzzleshipping. Shonen-ai. One-shot, prequel to Lives To Live.


**A/N**: Hi, all. After another interminable absence from this category, I have returned, (yes, I'm aware that statement is oxymoronic…) bearing the never-before-published prequel to Lives To Live, explaining, among other things, how Yami wound up in his own body, along with several things that are not in the story yet, but will be once I'm finished with the rewrites. …uh, yeah. Just pretend that all made sense.

**A/N 2 (actually pertinent) **In ancient Egyptian religion, a lotus flower was considered to be a symbol of resurrection.

Also, see story 'These Games' for explanation and identification of miscellaneous characters named herein.

**DISCLAIMER**: I don't own YuGiOh. I own my mind (I think…) and it's contents, so please ask if you would like to borrow anything you don't recognize.

This one-shot was loosely inspired by a wonderful story, 'After,' written by Chibi's Sister. I take a slightly different tack on it, but I definitely recommend reading hers as well, it's excellent.

**LOTUS**

"Has he eaten?"

"No."

"Has he slept?"

"No."

"Has he _moved_?"

"Gods take you, Mahado, you know full well he has done none of those!" Seto snarled, spinning on his heel to glare into the other priest's eyes.

Mahado sighed softly, his eyes - their color shifting mercurially between deep brown and clear blue - sliding closed as he struggled with his patience. "My apologies, Lord Seto. I am merely concerned."

"We're already dead, Mahado," Seto reminded him, a touch scathingly. "I doubt our Devine Pharaoh will starve."

"You mean to say you are not concerned for him?" Mahado's eyes blinked open again, almost automatically finding the small figure, isolated across the sandstone-paved courtyard.

The former Devine Pharaoh, their young Lord Atem, was sitting on the broad marble rim of a rectangular reflecting pool, knees hugged to his chest, bleary-eyed from the exhaustion he shouldn't have felt. He looked terribly young, staring into that pool as though it was a window to his salvation.

Though, in its own way, perhaps it was.

___________________________________________

Yuugi Mouto tried to muffle his sigh, knowing full well that the sensitive microphone connected to his webcam would pick it up anyway.

"I'm fine, Teá, really. I promise."

"You're a lousy liar, Yuugi," the girl replied, her voice only slightly distorted by the top-quality computer video link. She smiled at him, gently, concern evident in her blue eyes. "You're not sleeping enough, I can tell. You shouldn't be all alone there - it's not good for you."

"And you think I should take in a roommate?" Yuugi tried to make a joke of it; Teá was sharing an apartment in New York with Mai, and although the pair were best friends, their quarrels had gotten them threatened with eviction at least twice.

"I'm just saying, after your Grandpa - "

Yuugi shook his head to cut her off. "I'm not alone, Teá, really. I couldn't be if I tried. I have a standing duel with Seto every Sunday, and Joey virtually lives here when he's not at tournaments. And I have my students and customers on top of that."

Teá's smile had cracked a little around the edges, fighting a losing battle with the sadness underneath. "Yuugi, without Yami and your grandfather there, it's really not the same thing."

Yuugi sighed again, rubbing unconsciously at the leather cuff on his left wrist. Below it, tattooed in stark black against the pale skin, was the kanji for 'friendship'. Each of the old gang - Yuugi, Tristan, Joey, and Teá - had an identical tattoo.

"I'm not alone," he repeated, a little more firmly. Unsnapping the cuff, he held his wrist up to her to illustrate his point. "Even with you and Mai in New York, Joey at tournaments, and Tristan off to college - I'm not alone. We're all still in touch."

"And you're still a lousy liar," Teá repeated softly, and Yuugi's responding smile was as forced as her own. He knew perfectly well that his recent lack of sleep showed. His skin had gone translucent over the past three weeks, his eyes hollow and shadowed. And he knew full well that no matter how hard he argued, Teá's concerns were correct.

He was alone.

________________________________________

"Lord Pharaoh, I beg of you to come and join us. It does not due to be alone among friends."

Atem answered by the simple expedient of ignoring Ounosu entirely, his gaze never shifting from the surface of the pool.

Time passed oddly in the spirit world - the three years it had been since Atem had left Yuugi's side might have been three days. Not for Atem, of course, and certainly not for Yuugi, but time here was truly relative.

Behind Ounosu, Mahado, Emrys, Seto, and Mana hovered worriedly, exchanging murmurs among themselves. The other priests, a part and yet apart, looked on from their scattered positions around the courtyard, their distance greater, their concern the same.

Ignoring them all, Atem reached out one slim hand, caressing Yuugi's fragile image in the still water.

So intent was he on the boy's face that he did not notice when the other members of his group suddenly fell silent.

It was not until the dark, long-fingered hand settled gently on Atem's shoulder that the former Pharaoh looked up, into the dark eyes of the God of the Dead himself.

Anubis, his great jackal's head bent forward, regarded Atem with sad eyes. "You are pining, child," he said simply, growlingly deep voice pitched soft. "Are you so unhappy, here in the Field of Reeds?"

Atem considered the question for a moment before replying. "Lord Anubis, happiness requires a full heart, and mine was left in the world of the living."

Leaning forward, Anubis studied Yuugi's image in the pool. "This young boy, then, is the key to your heart?"

"Paradise is empty without him, my Lord. He is my heart, my soul, and my life."

Anubis nodded slowly, considerations playing across his inhuman features. "If you cannot find happiness in Paradise, child, where would you seek it?"

Slowly, Atem uncoiled his tightly wound body until he was sitting cross-legged on the edge of the pool, and finally looked fully into the god's dark eyes.

"My only paradise is by his side."

Anubis nodded once, silently, as though that answer had been expected. Silently, he opened his hand to reveal a single, blue-white flower nestled in his dark palm. His great form towering over the diminutive Pharaoh, the God of the Dead leaned forward and whispered into his ear.

______________________________________

"No, no! Don't you dare fly back here just because of me. I know how hard Julliard is to get into, and you're not going to lose your place there for me, okay?"

"Yuugi, if you need me, I swear I will catch the first flight - "

The bell over the door of the Game Shop rang, signaling an incoming customer. Yuugi glanced up from the laptop, uncaring at first - and froze.

"Yuugi?" Teá asked carefully, but the boy didn't answer her, his eyes fixed on the figure standing just inside the shop door.

"Yuugi, what is it?" Teá's voice had taken on an edge of worry.

"Impossible," Yuugi exhaled, his eyes widening beyond a point that should have been physically possible.

"Yuugi?!"

"Hello, Aibou."

On the other end of the connection, Teá froze, just as shocked as Yuugi at the sound of that deep, familiar voice.

"It's not… possible…" Yuugi whispered, tears beginning to well in his amethyst eyes.

"And yet, here I am." Standing just inside the doorway of the shop, Yami spread his arms in an open invitation.

And Yuugi vaulted the counter and all but threw himself into those open arms, sobbing into Yami's chest as he clung to the spirit's now-physical form.

"How?" Yuugi whispered, his voice muffled by the blue jacket and leather buckle shirt his other half was again wearing. "How?"

Smiling gently, Yami pressed the boy backwards just enough to unfasten the buckles of his shirt, tugging the edge aside to reveal the image over his heart - the lotus flower that Anubis had thrust into the chest of his spirit form, just as he had whispered '_So be it.'_

"The dead are supposed to journey to Paradise," Yami explained, barely whispering, as Yuugi tentatively caressed the perfectly rendered image. "But my only paradise is by your side."

Trembling, Yuugi froze against him - so hopeful, so afraid to hope!

"So, you're…"

Smiling, Yami seized his lighter half's wrist, pressing Yuugi's palm flat against the image of the lotus, directly over his beating heart.

"I'm alive," Yami whispered into Yuugi's hair, his own voice trembling with joy. "I'm alive, and we're together, my Hikari. My beloved."

And Yuugi clung to him, sobbing his relief into Yami's chest, because they _were_ together, and they would never have to be alone again.

_End_


End file.
